BookMARC

Searching the Community

Joining the Community

Registration

To become a MARC member, click the 'Join Now' button or 'Join' on the top-right of the MARC homepage. Once you are on the registration page, enter the required information, click the 'I accept the terms and conditions' box and then hit 'Submit.' You will receive a confirmation email to the email address you registered with.

Logging In

To log into the community, enter the email address and password that you registered with. You can select 'Remember my Email' (not recommended for public computers) to remember your account email address. If you forgot your password you can reset it by clicking 'Forgot Password' which will send a new password to your email address.

User Dashboard - My Home

Creating a User Profile Photo

The user profile photo is the main image that represents you and is associated with all your activity within the community. To change profile photo click the 'Change profile photo' link on the MyMARC page. This will take you to the My Content upload photo area. You can click 'Make Primary Photo' upon upload or select an existing photo as your primary photo.

Posting a Status Update

Your user status lets you tell community members how you are or what's on your mind, or simply to say hello! Your status will show up on your profile and on your colleagues' MyMARC page in the Recent Activity area. To change your status, click inside the status box, type in your update and click save.

Recent Community Activity

The recent activity box shows you the latest activities that you and community members have participated in on the site. You can click on the user and content links inside of the recent activity box as well as view previous updates to view other popular content.

Site Message Center

The 'My Messages' block shows your outstanding colleague requests and new messages in the internal inbox. This inbox is only for messages sent within the community and does not email your account email address unless you have message notifications turned on. The message center also includes your watch list settings which allows you to subscribe or 'watch' the latest updates in MARChat.

Account Administration - MyMARC

Managing Account Information

Privacy Settings

The Privacy Settings tab in the My Account area gives you control over who can see your content. There are three settings for each area that can be applied: colleagues only, everybody and nobody. The areas that you can control privacy for are profile comments, profile information and all content. You can also restrict access to limit the ability for other users to send you a private message.

Email Notifications

The email notifications tabs allows you to control what areas of the platform send you an external email to your account email address when there are updates to content you uploaded or are participating in. You can also unsubscribe from all site notifications in this area.

Managing Content - My Content

The 'My Content' area allows you to manage all of your photos, videos, files and audio. For each item you upload you can add a title, description and tags. You can also share all items in the associated site wide galleries. In the photos area, you can select a photo to be your main primary site photo. For photos, you can also choose to upload or link to a photo to be shared in the community. For videos, you can embed videos from other sites such as YouTube or upload a video from your computer. For files, the maximum file size you can upload is 20 megabytes.

Managing Your Colleagues

The Colleagues pages allows you to view, remove and accept colleagues from the community. If you have any pending colleague requests you can select one of the following options: 'Accept' to add them as a colleague, 'Decline' to not add them, and 'No Action' to leave them as a pending request.

Site Wide Messages - Your Inbox

The site inbox is a private system messages that allows you to communicate privately with other users on the site. The inbox view allows you to see latest messages you have received from other users. Within the inbox you can open and read a message by clicking on the subject header of each message. You can also delete a message by checking its box and then hitting 'Delete Selected.' To view sender’s information, click their user name.

Invite Others to the Community

Use the invite page to invite your friends and contacts to the community. Your name and the email subject are automatically populated; all you need to do is add their email addresses by typing them in the box. Separate each email address with a comma. If you’d like to add a personal message, do so in the box below the email address. The message body is an automatically generated email from the community. Once you have all of the information populated, click on 'Send Invitation.'

Setting Up and Editing Your Profile

To edit your profile, click the arrows to the right of each profile information area. This will expand that area and allow you to fill out the profile information form (boxes marked with a red star are required). When finished with each section, click 'Save' and the information will display on your user profile.

Viewing Your Profile

From the profile page you can see and change your main profile picture, view your community stats, see the communities' recent activity, view a list of your colleagues, and see comments members have left for you. You also can see your profile details.

Colleagues - Connecting With Other Users

Viewing Other User Profiles

To connect with other users on the site or become colleagues you will need to send them a colleague request. To send a request you will need to view their profile and click on the 'Add as Colleague' link. If you are already colleagues you can also remove them in the same area. Depending on the specific user's setting, you may also send a private message, invite them to a group you are already a member of, or leave them a comment on their profile. You may also be able to view all of their profile information and find other users with similar interests or experiences.

Participating in Forums

Creating a New Topic or Post

To create a new post, click the category title and then click the forum post topic that you would like to participate in. You can also create a new topic by clicking 'Create a New Post.' Once you have selected a topic, go to the bottom of the page and enter your comment. To see your comment before it is public, select 'Preview.' To post your comment, select 'Submit' and your post will display in the category selected.

BookMARCs

Finding Items

BookMARCs allows you to browse community items and comment on those items based on the categories set for the site. A featured item is prominently displayed on the main reviews page as well as a featured user review. The 'Browse Categories' area displays all the categories members are writing about.

Reviewing an Item

To create a review of an item, select 'Write a review.' You will then be able to rate the item giving it a value based on the number of stars (1-5) for your rating. You can also enter text for your review in the 'Your Review' section then click save to post the review.

Searching for Content and Other Users

Profile-Based Search

Profile-based search is an easy way to find other people with the same interests or expereince in the community. To use profile-based search all you need to do is click on the keyword in the profile information of the user's profile you are viewing. This will search the platform for all users with the same information and return a list of those users in the search results. You can then view their profiles and add new colleagues by sending them a colleague request.

Basic Keyword Search

To search quickly using a keyword or phrase, type the keyword, name, or topic you are looking for in the top-right seach box. When you click the magifying glass icon, a list of all content items and users relevant to your search terms will appear.

Advanced Search

To search for specific words in a community area, select the type (Members, Forums, Reviews, etc.) and then enter keyword, username, or email address. To search for members, enter their email address. You may specify searching for members with photos only, those that are online, or members of groups created within the community. To search for users through their basic information, enter their gender, location, contact information, city, or words appearing in their 'About Me' section. To search for users through their education and work information, enter their college name, degree type, high school, employer and/or position. To search through their social medias aliases, enter their Twitter handle.